As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Monday, April 13, 2009

More Fear From Establishment Special Election Supporters

Jerry Brown has become the last potential gubernatorial candidate to make a view on one of the propositions on May 19, which is part of a pattern, as Brown has studiously tried to avoid giving any legitimate opinion whatsoever throughout the winter and spring. He supports Prop. 1A, not because he can advocate for its substance, but because it represented a compromise:

The 2010 contender for governor was tepid in his endorsement of the measure, but credited Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders for their effort in crafting a compromise: “The budget thing is complicated and it is daunting,” he said. “They tried . . . and did the best they could to come up with something.”

“You can’t make the perfect the enemy of the possible,” Brown told calbuzz.

It's a ringing endorsement. And I'm thrilled that the leading candidate for Governor finds the budget "daunting" - very reassuring. In addition, he declined to take a position on the other 5 measures because "I have to read them.” And let's be clear that only John Garamendi, among Democratic hopefuls, opposes Prop. 1A. Maybe he read it.

Failure of these measures would open up a gaping hole in the budget and leave critical protections for our health, safety, and prosperous future at great risk [...] The measures are not perfect, but they are our best option to protect critical funding for essential environmental, public health, and education services [...] We need all of these props to pass, or California will lose more than $23 billion over the next four fiscal years–forcing billions upon billions in deeper cuts to education and other popular services [...] When the state was near a complete shutdown this February, a small minority of legislators tried to use the budget meltdown to extract policy concessions on some of California’s most fundamental environmental protections in exchange for budget votes. Thanks to your help, we were able to fight back and defeat the most significant proposed rollbacks. If the Propositions fail in May, the budget deficit for next year will add an additional $6 billion dollars in cuts to essential programs to an already impossible budget.

That's not even true on the merits. The Governor and the Yacht Party GOT those concessions on environmental protections, exacting delays in regulating diesel pollution, to use just one example of the many concessions. The CLCV is shading the truth and appealing to fear.

Calitics will have their special election ballot endorsements early this week.